Japanese Hiragana Hiragana syllables developed from Chinese characters, as shown below. Hiragana were originally called onnade or ‘women’s hand’ as were used mainly by women – men wrote in kanji and katakana. By the 10th century, hiragana were used by everybody. The word hiragana means "oridinary syllabic script". In early versions of hiragana there were…
Jamaican (Jimiekn/Patwa/Jamaican) Jamaican is an English-based Creole with influences from languages of West and Central Africa. It developed during the 17th century and includes significant influences from various dialects of English, especially those of Scotland and Ireland. Over 4 million people speak Jamaican, most of whom live in Jamaica. There are also many speakers in…
Itelmen (итэнмэн) Itelmen is a Chukotko-Kamchatkan with fewer than 100 speakers in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia. It is the only surviving member of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family. The majority of speakers are elderly and live in scattered settlements in the Koryak Autonomous Okrug. The language is no longer passed on within families, but in recent…
Italian (italiano) Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, the Vatican City, Malta and Eritrea. There are also Italian speakers in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, the USA and the UK. Italian first started to appear in written documents during the 10th century in the form…
Pitman Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) The Pitman Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) was invented by Sir James Pitman, grandson of the inventor of Pitman shorthand. It was first used in a number of British schools in 1961 and soon spread to the USA and Australia. It is designed to make it easier for English-speaking children to…
Ishirkian The Ishirkian language was first created in 1994 by Chris Payne. It was originally created to be a coded way to write in English between friends. After a few weeks they decided to find a way to actually speak this code. The English alphabet was then jumbled (vowels with vowels, consonants with consonants)…
Irish (Gaeilge) Irish is a Celtic language spoken in mainly Ireland (Éire). There are also Irish speakers in the UK (Ríocht Aontaithe), the USA (Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá), Canada (Ceanada) and Australia (an Astráil). According to the 1996 census, 1.43 million people in Ireland claim to have some knowledge of Irish, 353,000 of whom speak it…
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Origin The IPA was first published in 1888 by the Association Phonétique Internationale (International Phonetic Association), a group of French language teachers founded by Paul Passy. The aim of the organisation was to devise a system for transcribing the sounds of speech which was independent of any particular language and applicable…
Iñupiaq (Inupiatun) Iñupiaq is an Eskimo-Aleut language spoken in the north and northwest of Alaska by about 10,000 people, who are known as Inupiat. The language is also known as Inupiaq, Inupiak, Inupiat, or Inupiatun. Iñupiaq was first written by explorers in Alsaka who devised various ways to write the language, none of which were…
Inuktitut syllabary Origin The Inuktitut syllabary was adapted from the Cree syllabary in the late 19th century by John Horden and E. A. Watkins, missionaries from England. Edmund Peck promoted the use of the syllabary across the Canadian Arctic, and also translated the bible into Inuktitut, and wrote an Eskimo Grammar and an Eskimo-English…
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